World of Blue
by Tai Wilson
Summary: There's always a 'What If' What if Neo hadn't taken the red pill? What if he had swallowed that little blue thing? Chapter FIVE up!
1. Chapter 1

World of Blue  
  
By Tai Wilson  
  
Chapter 1  
  
"This is your last chance. After this there is no turning back. You take the blue pill, the story ends; you wake up in your bed and believe, whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes. Remember, all I'm offering is the truth. Nothing more."  
  
Thomas A. Anderson, better known as Neo, sat in a lion chair thinking about what the man who called himself 'Morpheus' had just said. He would have to leave everything behind. He would have to live in what seemed to him was hell on earth, or maybe just hell. He would have to wake up everyday and know the truth: That for hundreds of years humans had been unknowingly batteries for the machines that now ruled the world. He would never be able to return to his old life.  
  
But also, he would know the truth: That for hundreds of years humans had been unknowingly batteries for the machines that now ruled the world. He wouldn't have to return to his old boring life. He could do something that for once really seemed right to him.  
  
Both the choices presented their ups and downs, but which was the right one?  
  
After a minute or so of thinking it over and over in his head, Neo looked up at the man sitting across from him.  
  
"Well?" Morpheus asked. "Which is it, Neo? Red pill or blue?"  
  
Looking at the two pills sitting on the table, Neo chuckled to himself at how they looked just like a DayQuil and NyQuil LiquiCap. One, the red pill, would relieve him of the sickness of the machines; while the other, the blue pill, would also relieve him of the machines, but only by putting him back into the clueless slumber that the rest of the world was in.  
  
"The blue pill." Neo said quickly and defiantly. "I don't want to know this. I don't want to wake up. I'd rather live out my days as a battery for some machine than know that everyone but me was and there was nothing I could do about it."  
  
"But you can-" Morpheus started, but Neo cut him off.  
  
"No! I don't care! I don't want any of this! I don't want to be here!" Quickly he jumped out of his seat. Leaning down somewhat he looked Morpheus right in the eye. "I want to leave, and I want to leave now."  
  
"OK, but remember. Once you do, you can not go back."  
  
"Good." Neo said. Then the grabbed the blue pill and threw it into his mouth. A second later, everything went black. 


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Thanks for the review, Rebekah Bennett. These first few chapters might be kind of slow and/or short, but they'll pick up soon. Also, if anyone has any questions or suggestions for me, put it in your review and I'll answer them in the next chapter.  
  
Chapter 2  
  
Slowly, Neo began to wake up. At first, his vision was blurry, but soon everything began to come into focus.  
  
"Uhh..." Neo said in a groggy voice. "Where was I last night?" Slowly Neo began to stand up, but soon he fell back down onto his bed, grabbing his head in pain. "Ah! $#@% hangover! Wait... I didn't go out drinking last night." Again he tried to get up, but this time he did it much slower.  
  
After about a minute, Neo was up and heading for the toilet.  
  
About half a minute later, Neo was looking through the fridge, when he went back to the toilet, this time to vomit.  
  
Pulling his head out of toilet, Neo looked into it only because he was too tired to raise his head all the way. "What the hell?" Neo said looking what had just came out of him.  
  
The vomit was neon green with a hint of blue and seemed to be swimming in a clear, lightning yellow liquid.  
  
"What did I eat last night?" Neo said to himself as he shakily got up.  
  
No longer feeling the need to eat, Neo skipped the fridge and went straight to his computer.  
  
Once he had turned on the computer, Neo brought up the Internet.  
  
"What the-?" Neo said to himself as he looked at the monitor. The day before it had been a Tuesday. Now, though, the Internet was telling him it was a Thursday.  
  
After checking the TV, and other things that told the date, he found that the computer wasn't wrong. It was Tuesday.  
  
"What's the heck is going on?" Neo said to himself. Just then, the phone began to ring.  
  
"Hello?" Neo said into the receiver. "What? What do you mean I two days at work? After I was what? I was never escorted out the building! I was just in yesterday! Yes I was! I remember. You fired John Murdock an hour after I came in. I know that was Tuesday! No, Tuesday wasn't two days ago, it was yesterday... wasn't it? I don't know. No, I'm fine. Uh, I think so, anyways. I just woke up. Well, I need to go. What? You're firing me? I was there yesterday! I know I was! I came in an- Hello?" Neo's boss had just hung up after firing him.  
  
After a minute or so of shouting random profanities at no one, Neo decided to go looking for a new job.  
  
A/N: I know, this one really sucked, but it gets going soon. I probably won't post the next chapter until next week because I want to watch the Animatrix before I really start the story. 


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Sorry for taking so long. Thanks for reviewing. The replies are at the end. And just a side note, because of the $# layout of stories on this website I have to space everything in a weird way. Sorry if it looks weird.

Chapter 3

By Tai Wilson

"What do you mean he didn't take it?" Cypher asked the one question that Morpheus had already heard three times since he had answered a corner phone that took him back into the "real world".

"I mean exactly what I said." Morpheus said with a stone face, looking directly at Cypher. "He took the blue pill and wasn't going to tell him otherwise." Morpheus had a deep voice that always stated an opinion that couldn't be changed, no matter what happened. Sometimes people believed him, and in him. Most of the time they thought he was mad. Now, however, they saw that he wasn't always right, and that all hope was now lost.

"You said he was the One! You said he be able to stop them! You said he would do it! We almost had to loose our ship and our lives to go get him, and he didn't even get out! He doesn't even know what he's gone though, or how he's going to get terminated tomorrow at midnight! All we've-" Cypher stopped suddenly. An alarm was sounding in the cockpit.

"Sentinels." Morpheus said before running to the cockpit as everyone else ran to a gun turret.

After a few seconds, the ship jolted upward slightly before it began flying quickly though the sewers, trying to loose the small cloud of sentinels that was now following the ship.

For about a minute, only one or two sentinels broke away from the cloud at a time to try and reach the ship, and were quickly shot down in ten bullets or less. Then, suddenly, the whole cloud advanced on the ship at once, and the crew opened fire.

* * *

Calmly, Neo walked through the streets of New York. It was about 1:30 p.m., and he needed a new job. First, however, he needed to get some food, and before he could do that, he needed money, which brought him to the bank. 

As he entered the bank, he was immediately greeted with a loud shout from someone farther in the bank. "Down on the floor! Now!" Neo quickly dived to the floor as the robbers continued removing large amounts of money from the bank's vault.

"I thought I told you to lock the door!" One of the six robbers yelled to the one closest to him, who, even through the ski mask, looked like he really didn't want to be there.

Quickly he walked toward the door, irritated at being yelled at. In his frustration, he grabbed a woman's shopping bag and threw it across the room, the contents flying everywhere. One of which was a set of dinner silverware, skidded across the floor toward where Neo was kneeling, his hands over his head.

As the box hit his head, Neo instinctively put his hand on it to push it away. Looking up at the box, something caught his eye. His index finger was resting on a spoon. Normally, this wouldn't have meant a thing to him, but today, at this moment, for some reason, he couldn't take his eyes off it.

Once the robber had locked the door, he turned to see Neo holding the box of silverware, looking at it intensively. Figuring he was planning on using the knife that was also in the set, the robber rushed over to Neo.

"Give me the box." He said quickly. When Neo didn't respond, he repeated himself, this time with anger in his voice. "I said, give me the box!" Again, Neo said nothing. Now, the robber was really mad. Pressing the barrel of his gun against the back of Neo's head, he shouted again, "Give me the box! NOW!"

Neo's eyes widened, not looking at anything, but looking all the same. Quickly, with out a single though entering his head, Neo stepped on the man's foot, grabbed both the gun and the man's hand, and twisted as he turned around, making a large bump appear in the man's forearm, while making a sickening snapping noise. The man screamed out in pain as he let go of the gun, more because he no longer had any feeling in his lower arm than because of the pain.

As he pressed the gun against the man's forehead, Neo's eye suddenly came back into focus, and he saw what he had just done. In shock, and just plain fear, he dropped the gun.

Meanwhile, the other robber that had yelled before almost jumped out of his skin when he heard his younger partner scream. He looked over just in time to see the gun go off as it landed on the ground. Not thinking, the robber let out a yell and fired a single shot at Neo, regretting it the second it had happened.

Neo turned when the robber screamed, and kept turning involuntarily as he watched a bullet go whizzing by, missing his chest by inches.

His mind now awake again, Neo turned and ran out of the bank. After shouting "The bank is being robbed" as loud as he could, he quickly ran down a nearby alleyway.

--------

Stopping to sit on the ground, Neo though over what had just happened to him.

* * *

Only a few moments ago, the Nebuchadnezzar bounced off a sewer wall, several sentinels still attached to its hull. As Morpheus piloted the ship at full speed, trying to shake the last of the sentinels, Tank glanced quickly at one of the monitors that showed the Matrix's code while waiting for the EMP to charge. 

"What the-?" Tank mumbled to himself as he looked at the screen.

Suddenly, the ship came to a complete stop, throwing everyone who wasn't strapped into their seat to their feet. They had hit a giant cloud of sentinels head on.

"Tank!" Morpheus shouted from the cockpit. "Hit the EMP!" Quickly Tank reached over and flipped the switch that let out a giant electric wave trough the air, killing every electrical device that was near the ship, accompanied by the sound of hundreds of sentinels hitting the ground, literally powerless.

---------

Tank walked over and sat next to Morpheus in the dark of the powerless ship.

"What happened?" Tank said in a quiet and calm voice, not bothering looking a Morpheus, because he knew he couldn't see him through the dark.

"I don't know." Morpheus said in his usual voice. "They found us somehow."

"But why were they coming after us? And why so many?"

"What did you see in the Matrix before you hit the switch?" Morpheus asked, ignoring Tank's question.

"I don't know." Tank said in a now slightly confused voice. "For an instant, it was like when an Agent appears, with the code changing for a moment. But then, when it changed back, it didn't. It was still normal, but in the wrong order, like things were happening before they should have, and some things that should have happened, hadn't happened yet.

"It was Neo." Morpheus said. Even in the dark, Tan could tell he was smiling.

"I thought you said he didn't take the red pill." Tank said, slightly surprised.

"He didn't." Morpheus said, still smiling. "But that doesn't mean he's not the One. He is the One. He can't avoid it, no matter how hard he tries. The prophecy will come true, one way or another. It's just than, now, the story has changed. There are new characters, and missing pieces, but the story will continue. We'll just have to improvise, that's all."

"I don't think I'll ever understand you, sir." Tank said, chuckling slightly.

* * *

A/N: Finally! I finished the third chapter! I hope everyone can read it OK. If not, I'll try and find a way to fix it. If anyone knows how to fix this problem, please tell me in your replies. 

Speaking of replies...

richard the pedantic - Thanks for the review. This should start getting a little clearer as the chapters go on. And as for making the chapters longer, I think you're right. The only reason the first two chapters were so short was because they were relativly simple, and I just finished them quickly.

choice-is-an-illusion - Same answer as above. Once the other chapters get up, it should be a little more easily to understand.

P.S. if my words are slurred at all, it's becuse I'm writing this at 1:05 a.m. Hope I got all of the story up the way I wanted it. I'll have to read this over in the morning...


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Thanks for the reviews. Replies are at the end again.

* * *

World of Blue

Chapter 4

By Tai Wilson

Neo sat in the dark alley, still trying to figure out what had just happened. Resting his head against the wall, he closed his eyes, only to wrench them open again moments later. The second he had closed his eyes, hundreds of images entered his mind, but he didn't know where they came from or what they meant. He was in his office, running from someone. Then, he was getting into a car from a rain-drenched street on a dark night. Then, the last image was a hand, holding two pills: one red, one blue. Leaning forward suddenly, vomit exited from Neo's mouth. Looking at it, he noticed it was the same kind of vomit as before. He threw up on more time before coughing several times and then passing out.

------

Morpheus walked through the ship called the Logos. They had come to pick up the crew of the Nebuchadnezzar when their ship had lost power only because they were the closest. Now, the crews of both ships were heading toward Zion, trying to ignore how cramped it was on the small ship.

"I need to go back into the Matrix." Morpheus said to Sparks, the operator of the Logos. "We need to find Neo again before the Agents do. I'm sure they noticed what happened earlier today."

"It looks like someone else already found him, sir." Sparks said, looking at one of the three monitors.

"Is it an Agent?" Morpheus asked quickly.

"I don't think so, but he's definitely there."

"Well, let's go then. He might not be an Agent, but he could be a rough program just out to do their job, or worse." Morpheus said as he walked over to one of the Ecto chairs. Sitting down in it, he reclined as Sparks walked over to jack him in. Looking up one last time, he said, "If anyone wants to come with, do it now." With that the jack was inserted into the hole in the back of Morpheus' head as he closed his eyes, sending his mind into the Matrix.

------

Neo opened his eyes as he slowly lifted his head out of the filth of the alleyway that was mixing with his own vomit.

"Glad to see yer awake there, laddey."

If he wasn't lying on the ground at the moment, Neo would have jumped. Rolling over, he saw a set of feet next to his chest. Looking up, he saw a man standing over him.

"What happened?" Neo asked, looking up at the man.

"You blacked out, that's what." he said simply. He had a thick Scottish accent. Or was it Irish? Neo couldn't tell, and given the circumstances, he didn't really care, either.

"Who are you?" Neo asked as he sat up, propping himself against a wall again.

"Most folks call me Keith O'Connor." the man said as he kneeled down next to Neo.

"What are you doing here?" Neo asked as he rubbed his left eye, trying to remove the sleep from it.

"I'm just trying to answer the same questions you are." Keith said with a slight sigh.

"You mean why I suddenly found the ability to take down a full grown gun wielding man with out even thinking?" Neo said quickly, getting slightly more serious now.

"Aye, that's the one." Keith said. "Now, what say we get out of this alley way, and get some grub?"

"But, how did you know?" Neo asked as he stood up.

"Trust me, laddey. There's plenty I know that you don't."

"Like what?"

"Like how there's one 'ell of a big dag about to bite you in the arse." Keith said, nodding his head in the direction of something behind Neo.

"A what?" Neo asked. Suddenly, Keith kicked out into the air, just missing Neo's head, and going past it. Then, Neo noticed he had hit something. It was a dog that was hell-bent and foaming at the mouth. Keeping the dog's neck resting on his foot, Keith bent his leg and then extended it again, sending the dog flying.

"That was a dog!" Neo said as he moved a few steps away from Keith.

"That's what I said. A dag." Keith said as he wiped the foam off of his shoe.

"No, you said a dag."

"What?"

"Never mind." Neo said with a sigh.

"Well then, what about that food I mentioned earlier? We can talk more once we get into a pub."

"Sounds good to me." Neo said. He had suddenly become very hungry and the thought of getting the food with someone else's money just made it sound even better.

As they walked out of the alley, Neo caught the first good look at Keith. He looked like he was in his mid twenties or early thirties. He was wearing regular blue jeans with a somewhat dirty white button down shirt and a brown leather jacket. A dark gray dress hat covered his brown, unkempt hair and cast a shadow over the beard he had that looked like it hadn't been cut or trimmed in days.

------

Morpheus and Mouse stepped out into the alleyway just seconds after Neo and Keith had left.

"I thought you said they were here." Morpheus said as he pulled out a cell phone.

"They were." Tank said on the other line. "They just left."

"Where?" Morpheus asked quickly.

After a few seconds of silence that most likely meant he was scanning the Matrix for a sign of Neo, he responded. "Uh... they, they just got into a cab seven yards away to the left of the alley!" Tank said quickly, finally finding a trace of Neo and the other person. "They're heading West on 3rd Street, at about 40 mile per hour."

"Good." Morpheus said as he and Mouse walked out of the alleyway to a waiting car.

"Where do we go?" Trinity said from the driver seat once Morpheus and Mouse were in.

"West on 3rd Street." Morpheus said simply as the car took off quickly.

------

A few minutes later, the cab that Neo and Keith were riding in stopped outside a shady part of town with a neon light flickering dimly over a building that read 'O'Malley's Pub'.

"We're 'ere." Keith said happily as he stepped out of the cab. Walking up to the door, he knocked three times. A slot opened and a set of eyes looked at Keith. "Passward?" They said in the same Scottish accent as Keith.

"Passward?" Keith repeated. "C'mon, O'Malley. Thar's never been no bloody passward! Now 'urry up open the dar, _he's_ with me."

The slot closed as the door swung open. "'Urry up yerself." O'Malley said as Keith hustled Neo inside before going in himself.

"What's with all the secrecy?" Neo asked, looking the pub over. It was a classic example of an old Irish pub, even down to the dirt on the mirror behind the bar and the group of drunks singing Irish drinking songs. He was surprised to find it in the large business city that he lived in.

"It's a bit o' a 'members only' kind of place." Keith said as he and Neo sat down at the bar. "Two pints o' rum for me an' the laddey!" Keith shouted at the bartender as two mugs filled to the brim with rum slid down the bar. Catching his mug, Keith raised it into the air and shouted out, "Gesondheid!" which was soon repeated by everyone in the bar but Neo as they downed whatever beverage they were holding in a single large gulp.

"Drink up, laddey!" Keith shouted over the now loud sound of the bar, hitting Neo in the arm. The hit was just light enough to not be taken as an attempt at harming him. Raising his cup to his mouth, Neo took a large gulp of the rum, which he soon found to be a mistake.

He only managed to spit out about a third of the rum, which went pouring all over the bar. It was scorching hot, felt like acid going toward his stomach, and tasted like sour milk. This just made Keith burst out laughing.

"Aye, you need to learn to pace yourself, laddey!" he said as he slapped the choking Neo on the back, almost knocking him over.

"I need some water." Neo said as he stood up, soon finding that the affects of the strong alcohol had already taken hold of his senses. He staggered drunkenly through the bar, trying to see through the beer goggles now covering his eyes. Over the noise of the bar that was threatening to make his head explode, Neo heard the deep, booming, distorted voice of Keith somewhere behind and to the right of him.

"Aye, you need fresh air is what you need."

Neo barley felt Keith grab his shoulders and lead him outside. He felt instantly better the second the noise was silenced and the fresh, cold night air entered his lungs, although he was still very drunk.

"I've had enough of vomiting for the week, thank you." Neo said more to himself than anyone as he felt his stomach start to turn.

"Aye, the moon is full and so are we, Mr. Anderson." Keith said, repeating a line from and a song and stating the truth.

"What?" Neo said dully, not quite hearing what Keith had said. Then, it reached his ears. Quickly he swung his arms out, pushing Keith away from him and taking several steps back. "You, you're one of them!" Neo said in a drunken anger.

"And just what is that, Mr. Anderson? Do you even know what it is you're talking about, laddey?"

"You, you're them! The police were with you!" Neo continued to shout drunkenly, only half knowing what he was saying. Memories of a few days ago had just flooded his mind. The only problem was, he didn't remember ever doing them. It was like remembering a dream. Was it a dream? He didn't know, but something in the back of his mind kept telling him that was he was seeing had, in fact, happened.

"Yer starting to remember, aren't you?" Keith said, moving slowly toward Neo.

Suddenly, a several shots rang out from behind them. Quickly, Keith moved the upper part of his body, dodging the bullets almost effortlessly. It wasn't as easy for Neo.

Before the first shot was fired, Neo saw two men round the corner, about a block away. Then, one pulled out a gun and fired three shots in their direction. At first instinct, Neo raised his hands into the air, knowing the bullets would hit Keith. That is, until the Scottish man moved out of their way. Then, it seemed as if time had stopped completely and Neo was facing three bullets pointed at torso and head. Obviously, Neo began trying to move, leaning back as far as he could, but the alcohol flowing through his blood stream seemed to have hardened his joints.

Turning his head slightly, one bullet barley missed his cheek, cutting the hairs from his nine' o'clock shadow that had just to show. The other two bullets were slightly more accurate.

Bending his knee inward at an uncomfortable angle, the bullet sliced through Neo's pants, cutting his leg slightly, making him fall on one knee. This, unfortunately, made his hand move forward, causing the bullet to cut through the web of skin between Neo's forefinger and thumb.

He would have yelled out in pain, if the rum that was still coursing through his body didn't numb it considerably seconds later.

Getting up quickly, Neo took off running in as straight a line as he could, with both the limp in his cut leg and the rum, now affecting his direction and speed.

Keith ducked down as the Agent jumped at him, making the program go flying over his head. Pulling out a gun from within his coat, he fired a single shot at the Agent, entering his chest and killing the virus instantly. A man in a business suit hit the ground as Keith also took off running after Neo, firing off several shots at the other Agent, slowing it down slightly.

------

Morpheus and Mouse were now running down the street toward the three figures they had seen. As they ran, Morpheus soon noticed that one was an Agent, and one of the other two was Neo.

Increasing his speed, Morpheus ran as fast as his mind would allow him, pushing the bar on his endurance level, and going much fast than his body would normally allow.

Ahead of him, Neo was doing the same with out realizing it, although he was going slower than Morpheus.

Just behind him, Keith was catching up to him. Soon, he was along side Neo. Quickly he rammed his shoulder into Neo's side, knocking him to the side, and into an alley, as Keith continued going sideways, also going into the alley.

"Get up." Keith said quickly as he pulled Neo off the ground and threw him through the back door of a restaurant. He had no time to be careful or gentle. As he went into the restaurant also, he went to fire several more shots at the Agent that had now entered the alley, only to find that he was out of bullets. Raising his gun, the Agent stopped advancing, aimed his firearm, and pulled the trigger.

* * *

A/N: Hmm... A cliffhanger. Good idea or not? Who knows? I need to end this chapter somehow, so that the way. Wow. It's really hard writing in Scottish slang, or whatever you want to call it. I know there's a proper word for it, I just can't think of it right now...

Well, I hope the lay out o this one looks as good on the Internet as it does here.

Now, on to replies!

richard the pedantic - Good quote, who ever said it. I'm not sure if the Neb has gun turrets or not, but it's like you said: Who cares? If I'm wrong, I'm wrong. I hope this was soon enough, for I don't like figs, let alone having them thrown at me. Thanks for the review!

nothingness - Glad you liked it. And trust me, you'll get more. A lot more. This'll probably be the longest and most complicated story I've written yet.

Mystic Kyra - Like the reply before, I plan on going on. Glad you liked it!


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: Thanks for the reviews. Again, replies are at the end.

World of Blue

Chapter 5

By Tai Wilson

Neo opened his eyes to the sound of gunshots. He had just been thrown through a rather solid door, which, as I'm sure most of you have guessed, didn't feel good. Now, he was picking himself quickly off the ground, ignoring the pain that surged through his body, trying to find the Agent that had just been chasing him. Wait. Agent. How did he know what it was? Well, it didn't matter now. Looking around quickly, he saw Keith, still standing in the doorway. "What happened?" Neo asked as he walked over toward the Irish man.

"The Agent is dead." said a deep voice from somewhere in front of Keith. Morpheus had arrived just seconds before the Agent had pulled the trigger on his gun. Luckily, he had managed to fire of a shot before the Agent did, causing the Agent to dodge the bullet, in which making him miss the shot intended for Keith. Then, he fired a shot into the Agent's leg, causing the virus to fall, before sending a final shot into it's head.

Now, Mouse was just reaching the alleyway. He had been running as hard as he could the whole way, trying to keep up with Morpheus. Now, he was out of breath.

Looking over at Neo, Morpheus said, "So, Neo. Now are you ready to learn what you already know?"

"Who are you?" Neo asked as he walked over toward Morpheus.

"I am, Morpheus, and this is one of my partners, Mouse." Morpheus said, gesturing toward Mouse.

"What's going on?" Neo asked as he felt a cold drop of rain hit his hand. It was starting to rain; the hard, cold rain that chilled you to the bone.

"You're starting to go down the rabbit hole, Neo." Morpheus said, not seeming to notice the rain. A few seconds later, an all black car pulled up in the street next to the alley.

Looking down at his hand, Neo saw the raindrops hit it, slowly starting to fall faster. Then, something odd started to happen. They seemed to start to just go into Neo's hand, rather than splashing off of it.

"What's going on?" Neo repeated. He had started to feel lightheaded, and couldn't see as well. Then, he felt a pair of hands grab his shoulders and start to push him toward where the black car used to be. Now all he saw was one large and dark blur after another.

Neo as most passed out as the car door shut, and they sped away into the dark.

He was now in a semiconscious state, only hearing some of what was being said, and responding to commands, but his face held a lifeless look, and his mouth hung slightly open, drool lingering dangerously close to falling out.

"Did you have to drug him?" he heard a voice say. It sounded like it was miles away, echoing softly though his mind.

"It was the only way." Another, deeper voice said. "We need to get him out now before it's too late, and we don't need any complaints."

"But how do you know he won't bug out once we pull him out? And plus, how do you even know that he's the One?"

"You saw what he did yesterday. He has to be the one."

There was an undetermined amount of silence before Neo felt the car come to a stop and the same pair of hands pulled him out of the car.

He didn't know how far or for how long he walked. It could have been a few steps, it could have been a mile, but eventually, Neo felt himself sit down in a chair.

"Drink this." he heard a voice say as a glass was put into his hand. Blindly obeying, Neo took several large gulps of the liquid that he now knew was water. Instantly, he regained full conscious. Looking around the room, he saw Morpheus, Keith, Mouse, and two other people he hadn't seen before in the room. One was a woman with black hair that looked strangely familiar. The other was a man with a shaved head, who didn't look all that happy about being there.

Looking down, Neo saw that he was sitting in a chair, his arms and legs strapped in.

"What's going on?" This was the third time in a row now that Neo had asked this question. "What'd you give me?"

"Aye, did you really think that there was just rum in those mugs, laddey?" Keith asked with a grin on his face.

"The red light special." said the man with the shaved head. He was typing feverishly away at a computer.

"Cypher." Morpheus said, looking at the man. "Do you have a lock on him?"

"I've got it." Cypher said quickly, still punching commands into the computer. "We have lift off in t-minus 30 seconds."

Looking at Neo, Morpheus said simply, "See you at the bottom of the rabbit hole."

"What does that mean?" Neo asked in an almost hysterical voice.

"It means, 'hold on to your arse'." some one said. However, Neo wasn't paying enough attention to notice who it was.

"10 seconds." Cypher said quickly.

"Remember, rum leaves you with one 'ell of a hangover in the mornin'." Keith said, still grinning.

Then, Neo blacked out.

* * *

Neo opened his eyes to red. It was all around him, like a pool of red slime. Lifting his head up, he felt something above him. Pressing on it with his hand, he broke through it, finding it to be a gooey cover, keeping him in a pod, just large enough to hold him. Sitting up in the pod, Neo noticed that he was covered in wires and tubes, one of which was currently stuck down his throat. Grabbing it with his hands, he pulled on it as hard as he could, which wasn't very hard at the moment. All the energy in his body was completely spent, but he still managed to pull the large, needle head tube out of this throat, allowing him to breath again.

Leaning over the edge of the pod, he saw that he was on a tower hold several hundreds or millions of other pods like the one he was in.

Suddenly, he heard an odd buzzing noise as he looked up to see something like a giant robotic spider hovering over him. Neo only looked at it for a moment before it grabbed him by the neck lifting him slightly into the air, a red robotic eye looking him over quickly. This was when Neo got the first good look at him self. Through the red reflection of the eye, he saw that his body was completely absent of any and all hair. Then, before he had time to react, the giant cable that was sticking out of the back of his head suddenly began unscrewing from his scull. Once the cable was out, the spider dropped Neo back into the pool of red goop as the bottom of the pod opened up. Out of instinct, Neo tried to grab onto the sides to stay in the pod, but with no luck.

He now half fell, half slid quickly down a large pipe, the metal scrapping his bare skin as he went. Then, the pipe abruptly stopped, sending Neo flying through the air, landing in a giant pool of water.

Looking up, he saw several bright lights as the ship above him opened its cargo bay doors, a claw just the right size for picking up humans slowly lowered down into the water. Somewhere in the deepest part of Neo's mind, he chuckled lightly at how much this reminded him of the games he used to play as a child, trying to catch the small stuffed animals. He would have laughed out loud, if all his current energy wasn't being used to keep him breathing. Luckily for Neo, this claw had a much better grasp than the ones he remembered.

------

For several hours, the crew of the Logos and the Neb, both still biting their tongues over how cramped the ship was, worked desperately to save Neo as they flew quickly toward Zion, still at least a day's time away from the city. Over this time, Neo slipped randomly in and out of consciousness.

Hours later, Neo woke up on a hard bed, feeling cold and itchy. He wanted to sit up quickly, but because of his loss of energy, it was much slower. Putting a hand to his head, he was surprised to find it shaved. Then he remembered his reflection in the red eye of the machine. Looking after he lowered his arm, he felt a slight tug at his skin. Looking down, he saw a long IV tube that was inserted into one of the many plugs on his body. Grabbing the tube, he started to pull it out and was surprised to find how long the needle it was attached to was. It was about twice as long as he expected it to be. Once it was out, he threw the IV off to the side of the bed before trying to rub the pain out of the plug that the tube had been in. He wasn't surprised that this did nothing but fill him with a cold and creepy feeling from the feel of the plug.

Just then, the only door in the room opened with a loud clank and groan from the hinges.

"Glad to see you're awake. Come on, I'll show you the ship." It was Morpheus. Neo was slightly irritated at how normal this seemed to be to him.

Morpheus handed Neo a blanket as he exited the room, walking out into what looked like a submarine. The blanket looked, felt, and smelt worse than a horse blanket, but Neo gratefully took it anyway. He had never been so cold before. It was like there was no heat on the entire planet.

Once they stepped out of the room, they were bumping shoulders with the eleven other people, all in the small deck.

"Sorry for the small space." Morpheus said as he maneuvered his way to the center of the group of people. "Our ship, the _Nebuchadnezzar_, was downed shortly before we rescued you. Now, we're on the ship the _Logos_. It wasn't built to hold this many people, but we needed to get off the ground before more sentinels arrived."

"Sentinels?" Neo repeated.

"I'll explain more later, but first, you should meet both the crews. A few, you already know. There's Trinity, Mouse, and Cypher." Morpheus gestured to the people as he said their names. "The way you've been acting, you might remember Apoc and Switch, but then again, you might not. The other two are Tank, and his big brother Dozer." Then, Morpheus turned to face the other side of the deck, where three other people were standing. "This is the crew of the Logos. Niobe, Ghost, and their operator, Sparks."

After introducing everyone, Morpheus turned back toward Neo. Setting his hands on Neo's shoulders, he said, "Follow me. It's time you see something."

"What?" Neo asked hesitantly.

"The truth." Morpheus said as he led Neo over to one of the handful of Ecto chairs.

Sitting down in the chair, Neo looked around nervously while Morpheus, with the help of Trinity, prepared Neo to go into the Matrix. After clamping his feet down with two large bars on hinges, Morpheus had Neo lay his head back while he grabbed the jack.

"Just try and relax. This is going to feel…" Morpheus paused while trying to think of the right words. "…A little weird." Hearing this, unfortunately, didn't help Neo relax at all.

Then, Neo felt a very sharp pain the back of his head as the jack was inserted. He tried to yell out, but no sound came out. Closing his eyes from the pain, Neo opened them a second later to nothing but white.

Looking around, he heard a voice from somewhere behind him.

"Welcome, Neo, to the Matrix." Morpheus said, suddenly appearing, seemingly from thin air, along with two chairs and a very old looking television.

"Is this… the Matrix?" Neo asked, hesitantly.

"Not exactly. This is the construct, our loading program. We can load just about anything from here: Sparring programs, gun, clothes, anything…"

-----

"He's gonna pop!" Cypher yelled almost comically as Neo knelt on the rusty grate floored deck of the Neb, ready to vomit. Then, he did, followed by passing out.

-----

Neo woke up to the feeling of eyes on the back of his head. Knowing it was Morpheus, Neo said, "I can never go back, can I?"

"No, and I should apologize to you. There's an age limit when we unplug people from the Matrix, and you're obviously over it. Not to mention that we had already given you a chance earlier, and when you refused, we drugged you and made you unplug." Seeing the look on Neo's face when he heard this, Morpheus quickly continued. "We had no choice! If we hadn't unplugged you, you would have died. Also, we all saw you in the bank. You _are_ the One. I think everyone knows that. Even you do, Neo."

"Well, since I can't go back, what _can_ I do?" Neo asked, sitting up in the bed, letting his feet fall over the edge and rest on the cold floor.

"You can train." Morpheus said simply.

"Okay, you're supposed to start off the operation programs first, but I think we can skip that and go on to something a little more fun." Tank said a few minutes later as he flipped through a handful of disks. "How about, combat training?" he said as he held up a disk for a moment before putting the disk into a slot and starting the program.

-----

Neo had been training for several hours when Morpheus walked up next to him and Tank.

"I know Kung-Fu." Neo said, looking up at Morpheus.

"Show me."

* * *

A/N: Well, that took longer than I would have liked… Now, onto replies! 

richard the pedantic - "_Your use of dramatic dramaticness is effective to say the least._" I had to read that a few times before I got it, but now I think I have an appropriate answer: Riiiiight… Thanks for the compliment, though, uh, I think… And yes, I think I did fall over. I don't know what kept me from updating this sooner, but I'm sure it was something having to do with school, end of semester exams, and the holidays. …Even though none of that was going on when I finished my last chapter…

I think we should just blame writer's block again and leave it at that before I write a full letter for your reply…

LiMiYa - Yes, it is interesting, isn't it? Also, I plan on continuing.


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